Nakhchivan

Nakhchivan stands in the valley of a tributary of the Araks, beneath the mountains that separate it from Syunik. An old town on routes between Armenia, Iran and Anatolia, it was famed for its medieval monuments, including the finely patterned brick mausoleum of Momine Khatun. Its position also exposed it to the armies competing for control of the South Caucasus.

In the late fourteenth century the city suffered the campaigns of Tokhtamysh and Timur. It later passed between the Qara Qoyunlu, Aq Qoyunlu and Safavids, becoming a battleground in the Ottoman-Safavid wars. In 1604 Shah Abbas ordered a scorched-earth retreat and the forced removal of Armenians and Muslims from the region into Iran, devastating settlements and their inhabitants. After the death of Nader Shah in 1747, Nakhchivan became the centre of a khanate ruled by the Kangarli family under Iranian suzerainty. Russian troops occupied the city in 1827, and the Treaty of Turkmenchay ceded the khanate to Russia in 1828. The town, long affected by war and displacement, began to recover thereafter.